England in India

[ronny_kingsley]

Congrats to the Poms but the series was drawn

Get in Robin or Vidyut into the team in place of Sehwag.If Ganguly doesnt seem likely to play in 2007 WC ,Sehwag doesnt look as if he can bat in the next match.WOoefully out of form.

Harbhajan,Sehwag should be given a spanking.For Dhoni's shot he should be and I really mean should be reprimanded harshly.

 

[maniac]

India Corrupt System And Loyalty

The problem for india has always been corruption. they never have had the best 11 players on the field at any time in my lifetime. the selectors r bought everytime . They choose the extra(after the top 8) players not on their skill but what can u do for me ? also they r too loyal too players also, if the player is not performing out he go because they r representing the country so they gotta be in top form. if a player is not in in top form then make the guy play domestic cricket and get his confidence back.

Explain too me how VRV Singh doesn't get any playing time in these series?

 

[Bala]

Explain too me how VRV Singh doesn't get any playing time in these series?

You explain to me, who will you have replaced - Sreesanth, Munaf - who are in the form of their lives or Pathan - who has been our major strike force and a handy bat over the last few months.

 

[angryangy]

shortened version of what most people are saying here:
India should not experiment too much on its Test formula, and should only do this in ODI Cricket.

Yes and no. Yes, they shouldn't experiment too much, but blaming it as their downfall isn't the whole story.

The debutants Patel and Sreesanth were the pick of the bowlers, while Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh lacked magic. On the other side of things, I see no trickery to selecting Sehwag and Tendulkar in your best XI, but Wasim Jaffer had a far better series than the two of them put together, while Mohammed Kaif almost scored more runs than either of them in just one innings.

The 6-5 order wasn't working because too many experienced players weren't playing like they're expected. With Sehwag's back and Tendulkar's shoulder, perhaps they shouldn't have been selected in the first place. Both definitely need time out of the game to manage their injuries. I wouldn't for a second consider dropping either of them otherwise.

In short, yes 7-4 is the necessary order, but only because their experienced players are not up to scratch.

 

[harishankar]

Disappointed at the test series result, but not really unhappy.

The English team should be congratulated. I think this is the best English team to play in Indian soil in a long time...

I think this series should be a turning point for the career of some Indian players, particularly senior members...

Sachin... well, we've been waiting for a great performance for a while now, and it won't be long before the public lose that patience (already many of his critics have lost it). To be fair, he's growing older and his injuries just don't seem to allow him to play with the natural freedom any more. I would reserve judgement on him.

Sehwag... I'm astonished at some of the criticism he's received. I think he is still a match-winner, but his position as opener might be a problem because new ball bowlers the world over seemed to have worked out his weaknesses, particularly against the short ball at his body.

Dravid... As a captain, the public will be more critical of his failures from this point onwards. As Sourav found out, it can be a rude awakening to wake up one day and find out that your admirers yesterday are your fiercest critics today. All that goodwill over his 100th test match has vapourized with this defeat.

Harbhajan... Career is clearly at the crossroads. Needs to go back to domestic cricket and work a lot. No player, however good, can be allowed to get back into form after a serious slump in International cricket.

Kumble... Maybe it's time to consider him to return to ODIs? When his form is good, he's likely to be effective in the ODIs.

 

[maniac]

You explain to me, who will you have replaced - Sreesanth, Munaf - who are in the form of their lives or Pathan - who has been our major strike force and a handy bat over the last few months.

SERIES I SAID THAT CONSISTED OF "3" MATCHES not 1
SECOND TEST eventhough they won piyush over vrv singh come on man. they didn't even use him much.
FIRST TEST - VVS LAXMAN out vrv singh in

Harbhajan... Career is clearly at the crossroads. Needs to go back to domestic cricket and work a lot. No player, however good, can be allowed to get back into form after a serious slump in International cricket.
.

WHY is everyone keep saying harbhajan is no good check the bowling figures on all the matches. oh and don't even say he doesn't get any wickets he took 5 in the last game plus couldve had more if the feilders were actually fielding.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

We dropped too many catches, our batters were horrible, and Dravid made the worst decision in history of cricket to bowl first. Sachin was injured, so I think maybe that niggle prevented him from performing the whole series. Sehwag has been exposed. Kaif was left out (Again, stupidity), and our fiuelders washed their hands in butter. Atleast Dravid admitted that the reason they lose was him choosing to bowl first. He may be a great player, a great human, but I think he is one of the worst skippers India will have. Kaif/Yuvi/Kumble should be getting it.

 

[Sureshot]

Most of us are aware of Owais's talent, but, we also realise that Bell won't open usually and Cook would have to come back in ahead of Owais. He will be around the squad for a while and it wouldn't suprise me if he played against Sri Lanka. He is in the ODI squad anyway.

Hope he plays in the ODI series (Shah that is).

Interesting what you say about the close in fielding. I think there's more and more a case for sides to take a "specialist fielder" into their team, a batsman who edges ahead of his rivals because he can take stunning catches where ever the captain wants to put him.

I don't know about Boyc's B-side call (of course, you have to take his comments with a grain of salt). As sheer numbers it looks devastating, but I think they could conceivably have done no better with the first string side. Three players bloat the injury list.

First up, cross off The King of Spain. Infinitely replaceable, as Udal would seem to prove.

Secondly, I think they gained by losing Steve Harmison. Rarely a star on foreign soil, he hasn't been going particularly well of late and as it happens, his replacement played a stellar match.

This is probably my biggest call, but the third is Vaughan. He's average 37 from his past 24 matches. You may as well replace him, because any decent first class batsman is just as likely to do that well.

Giles may not be as good as Udal or Panesar, but could've done a better job than Blackwell. I also feel he may have averaged better than Montys 61.

Vaughan?

Well I don't think he has long left in International Cricket, but one thing he does do is IF (Big IF) he get's in he more often than nots scores big, and has a good record vs India.

Harmison?

He bowled well in the second test, better than his figures suggest.

I had raised a question about bench-strength and how good you were in the world. England have shown that their bench strength is up to task, proving some of their own supporters [on this forum] wrong, and that they do in fact deserve #2, as of this moment in time.

can't possibly think of who you are thinking of

Congrats to the Poms but the series was drawn

Series was India vs England not India vs Australia.

 

[valvolux]

Wow the poms have certainly gone over the top with this one. I'd hate to actually see what the response would've been had they WON the series....perhaps just a second round of OBEs. But then again, the queen probably has a roast in the oven as we speak. LOL!

 

[s2sschan]

Harbhajan

You explain to me, who will you have replaced - Sreesanth, Munaf - who are in the form of their lives or Pathan - who has been our major strike force and a handy bat over the last few months.

VRV should replace Harbhajan, at least on lively wickets. Harbhajan definitely needs turners to do well.

India always go with 4 bowlers and now after this defeat, they wont dare experiment.

Then India will continue it's dismal run abroad.
Convince me how we can win with 4 bowlers, especially abroad.
Let's do the Math. For 4 bowlers to take 20 wickets, each bowler should take at least 5 wickets on average.
Name one Indian who has averaged 5 wickets per Test Match. I couldn't find any.
Forget 5 wickets per match.You probably won't find that many international bowlers who average 4 wickets per Test.
I know averages don't win matches and are a bad indicator because performances are usually skewed. A player usually has a good day or a bad day, seldom an average one. But the Math still sheds some light on the difficulty of taking 20 wickets.
[/QUOTE]

Sehwag is never a specialist opener and his technique wont help him in the long run. Some say he has succeeded overseas opening for India. But have you looked in which conditions did he succeed opening for India? Most of them were flat good batting pitches where he succeeded as an opener.

I wouldn't call Sehwag a "Flat Track Bully" even if he fails in the West Indies. I think he's a couple of notches above a flat track bully, somebody rightly called him a "Sophisticated Slogger".
I think what will happen is that until they find the "Regulation Opener" for India, Sehwag will stick around just like Agarkar did. Among the blind one-eyed is king.

 

[Stephen Bailey]

SECOND TEST eventhough they won piyush over vrv singh come on man. they didn't even use him much.

Chawla didn't didn't bowl more because he was poor when he did. VRV's figures in the warm up match v England were 1-108 from 22 overs, not exactly screaming out 'pick me, pick me' is it?

 

[Sureshot]

Wow the poms have certainly gone over the top with this one. I'd hate to actually see what the response would've been had they WON the series....perhaps just a second round of OBEs. But then again, the queen probably has a roast in the oven as we speak. LOL!

How's it over the top?

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Chawla didn't didn't bowl more because he was poor when he did. VRV's figures in the warm up match v England were 1-108 from 22 overs, not exactly screaming out 'pick me, pick me' is it?

Chwala wasn't poor. He was decent. Dravid did a good thing not bowling him more as he didn't want to dent his confidence against KP and Freddie.
I don't mind India selecting 5 bowlers. Nor do I mind them dropping Laxman. I even forgive them for dropping a in-form batter who scored 91, but electing to bowl first on a pitch where almost no team has won bowling first in a country where above 250 in the fourth innings is a rarity is just insane. And his excuse? 20 minutes of moisture. 3-5 overs of movement. Thats it?
I'll say it again - If Ganguly isn't going to be skipper anymore, it shouldn't be Dravid. He has good leadership skills, but dosen't have a great cricketing brain! If we have to have a skipper, I'd prefer someone like Kaif or Yuvi who can do the job well. Dravid has experience, but these guys are attacking and have good cricketing minds. If we want both, try Kumble! And I'm sure he'll be a decent addition to our ODI team too!

 

[icyman]

Sachin was injured, so I think maybe that niggle prevented him from performing the whole series.
Sehwag has been exposed.
Kaif was left out (Again, stupidity), and our fiuelders washed their hands in butter.
Atleast Dravid admitted that the reason they lose was him choosing to bowl first. He may be a great player, a great human, but I think he is one of the worst skippers India will have. Kaif/Yuvi/Kumble should be getting it.

I think we have given him enough chances now-Tendulkar.
You say that the niggle prevented him from performing,I disagree.Sehwag was suffering from a Back Spasm which is the worst that can happen to anyone.He has been exposed but so has Sachin.
He is in the worst form of his life and seems like he can't cope with the pressure.
Once again as i criticize him,some ppl would go to any measures to save him.
I think his time has come and should retire peacefully.If you are going by Tendulkar's past laurels,then sorry,I'd bring in Ganguly in the team.Maybe he'll bat better.I don't remeber Sourav being given so many chances.
We Indians refuse to accept any bad thing on Sachin and the posters put up in the ground reflect that the player is still bigger than the game.

Your statement that Dravid is the worst captain makes no sense,just because he doe'nt show agrression does not mean that he is bad.Or just becoz he chose to field first too.This decision was very much influenced by Greg - The Guru.
Agreed that our test perfo has been below par.
But before Kaif or Yuvraj ( should not ) get it ,they should cement their places in the squad.
I'd say give Dravid some time-let's say till the West Indies tour to prove his mettle in Test Captiancy as well.

 

[ZoraxDoom]

Its not his aggressiveness. Its his tactics. Especially in ODIs.He sets normal, non-unorthodox fields, bowls Sehwag in the final 10 overs, keeps Yuvraj in the slips or in the deep, and doesn't know how to stop a batsman who is settled in.
Ganguly should be back, expecially since Tendulkar is out.
And let me ask you - You've just returned to the team. Your not doing so great, but want to silent your critics. Suddenly, you have a slight injury. Do you risk telling anyone about it and putting your career on further standstill or just carry on and hope it goes away?
Sachin is just human. He must have been injured for a while, but never told anyone till now. It has effected his perfomance.